Mr Norman F. Harpur (Aeronautics DIC 1946)

Provided by Norman's daughter Catharine Kingcome

Norman Frederick Harpur MA(Cantab), DIC, FRAeS, CEng.

Aeronautical Engineer

11th June 1926 – 19th March 2007

Norman Harpur was born on 11th June 1926 in Erdington, Birmingham. He attended Bishop Vesey Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield where he became head of the school Spotters Club and trained to recognise all types of aircraft, enemy and friendly: perhaps a sign of things to come! He was awarded a scholarship to Cambridge and went up to St. Catharine College in the autumn of 1943 to read civil engineering. Being wartime this was a two-year course and subsequently he spent a year at Imperial College, University of London, obtaining a Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering.

In 1946, after completing his course at Imperial, Norman joined the Aircraft Division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a Stress Engineer, becoming a member of one of the most advanced structural engineering teams in the country, working on theoretical methods for the analysis and optimisation of shell structures. In 1949 Norman Became Section Leader (Dynamics) responsible for all dynamics, aeroelastics and powered flying control work at Filton for both fixed and rotary winged aircraft. His work at this time provided the basis for the section of AvP 970 dealing with stiffness of powered flying controls. From 1950 to 1960 he was Chief Structures Designer responsible for stress, dynamics and weights. 1956 saw the formation of separate Helicopter and Aircraft Divisions and from that time Norman was no longer involved with helicopters.

During this period the major projects at Filton were the Bristol Freighter and Wayfarer, Brabazon, Britannia and the Sycamore helicopter. Also at this time the Type 188 supersonic research aircraft was underway and the early Supersonic Transport Aircraft studies were started leading to the Bristol 223 Mach 2 design that formed, together with the Sud Aviation Super Caravelle, the basis of Concorde.

In 1960 Bristol Aircraft Limited joined with the aviation interests of Vickers Ltd. and the English Electric Company to form the British Aircraft Corporation. Norman was appointed Chief Structures Engineer (Filton) responsible for stress, dynamics, weights and structural test laboratories. He held these responsibilities (with various changes of title) until 1968 when aerodynamics and wind tunnels were added to his portfolio and he was appointed Chief Technician (Filton).

In 1971 the Filton and Weybridge divisions were merged to form the Commercial Aircraft Division of British Aircraft Corporation and Norman became Chief Technician (Commercial Aircraft Division) responsible for stress and weights. In 1976 he also assumed responsibility for the structures drawing office and with various titles, culminating in Divisional Chief Structural Engineer, he carried this responsibility until 1981. In the midst of this, in 1977, the bulk of the aircraft activities in the UK were merged to form British Aerospace and the division became the Weybridge Bristol Division of the Aircraft Group of British Aerospace.

In 1981 Norman’s long association with Filton was broken when he was appointed Technical Director of the Scottish Division, British Aerospace Aircraft Group at Prestwick charged with strengthening the engineering activity there on the Jetstream Aircraft.

In 1983 he returned to Filton as Executive Director, Design (Bristol) and then, following yet another reorganisation where Filton and Hatfield were joined to form the Civil Division, British Aerospace Aircraft Group, he became Executive Director, Technical (Filton) and Chief Engineer Airbus. He held this position until his retirement in 1985.

The dominant project in Norman’s career was Concorde, where work started in the late fifties and the aircraft was still in service when he retired. He was actively involved in all aspects of the structural design of the components of UK responsibility as well as the overall aspects of the airframe. This work broke new ground in aircraft structures design, particularly in the effects of kinetic heating of the structure, both in the transient stages of climb and descent where differential heating induces local stresses, and in the long term soak at high temperatures where both static and fatigue properties are affected and the phenomenon of creep has to be catered for. A major aspect of this work was the design and manufacture of the Major Fatigue Test Rig at Farnborough. This enabled a complete airframe to be subjected to representative heating and cooling cycles together with mechanical loading to simulate supersonic flight cycles.

In the latter part of Norman’s career Airbus became the major activity, growing slowly from the structural design of the A310 wing for Hatfield, through to Filton eventually taking full responsibility for the A320 aircraft.

As a mark of his professional achievements he was awarded the Bronze Medal (Oscar Faber) of the Institute of Structural Engineers in 1969 and the Bronze Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1970.

Outside the company Norman was active in many areas. He was a member of various Aeronautical Research Council committees from 1955 to 1980. From 1975 to 1976 he served on The RAeS (ESDU) Structures Committee. In 1974-5 he was on the Design Council Awards Committee and from 1973 to1976 he was involved in the Science Research Council, Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering Committee. Possibly the most significant aspect of his committee work was his membership from 1973 to 1980 of the AGARD Structures and Materials panel which he chaired from 1977 to 1988. In his early years Norman was heavily involved with fatigue problems and contributed a number of papers to ICAF.

In retirement Norman and his wife Ellen (Nell) moved to Ashburton, Devon. Norman’s retirement was very active. He was a member of Probus and Exeter Retired Engineers Society, treasurer to Dartington Arts Society and to St Andrews Church, Ashburton, and a trustee of Ashburton Museum. One of his achievements in this period was the raising of funds and overseeing the building of a new church hall. He also supported many charities particularly those involved in conservation.

Norman passed away peacefully on 19th March 2007 aged 80. He is remembered with great affection by Ellen, daughters Catharine and Clare, sons-in-law Howard and Bernie, grandsons James, Ben and Oliver, his extended family, and many friends and colleagues. His friend of 70 years described him as: A gentle man of science, tall in stature & intellect. To his family he was: Our kind, modest & dependable rock, lovingly and happily remembered.